Valentines calls for something a little special, don't you think? This year I tackled my first-ever light up card, and discovered it's not hard to get a great result. With premade LED components you don't need to know a thing about electronics, and those aren't super expensive. Mine came in a pack of six from Amazon, for $10 CAD. They even included a sheet of remarkably good double sided foam strips -- bonus!
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Tips & tricks for LED cards
Here are some tips I picked up while making this card:
- Create a 'window': Use an aperture die to create an interesting frame or 'window' for your lights to shine through.
- Bounce & diffuse your lights: Place a layer of vellum over the aperture window and use a white card base. These make a world of difference -- the white background bounces the light and the vellum diffuses it.
- Keep the battery fresh: Wait until the last minute to add your battery so that it arrives fully charged. If you're mailing the card use a sturdy envelope so that the lights don't get turned on by accident in transit. You can also cut a 'door' inside the front of the card to give access to the battery.
Supplies
- Hearts aperture die
- "Love" sentiment die
- Metallic cardstock
- White cardstock
- Pre-scored 4.25x5.5" card base
- Premade "Press Here" ephemera [optional]
- Alcohol ink markers
- Rubbing alcohol
- Paper towel
- Foam tape
- LED assembly (3 lights with a pre-wired on/off button)
- Battery
Making the card
- Prep a card panel and card base (both 4.25x5.5") using white cardstock.
- Decide where to place the key elements:
- Hidden elements: You need to hide the electronics on the back of your card panel, so decide where to place the on/off switch, battery, and LEDs.
- Visible elements: You need to add a "Push Here" button over the LED on/off switch, and you also need space for your sentiment. Decide where to place these on the front of the card panel.
- Using the hearts aperture die cut a 'window' from your card panel, leaving space for those key elements. (Save the interior white heart outlines for a future project!).
- Using the same aperture die, cut again using rose-coloured metallic cardstock. Keep the interior heart outlines this time.
- Glue a piece of vellum behind the aperture opening.
- Glue the rose-coloured heart outlines onto the FRONT of the vellum.
- Turn the panel over and use pink and red alcohol ink markers to colour the BACK of the vellum.
- Soak a bit of paper towel with rubbing alcohol and dab all over the inked vellum to blend them and create a stained glass effect when seen from the front.
- Die cut the "Love" sentiment from matching metallic cardstock, plus two layers of white cardstock.
- Glue these together to create a sentiment stack with the rose metallic sentiment on top.
- If necessary, insert a battery into your LED component.
- On the BACK of the card panel, tape or glue the LED on-off switch in the bottom right corner.
- Arrange the LEDs around the edge of the card panel, ensuring that the wires don't show through the aperture, and that the lights are evenly spaced.
- Test the effect by turning on the lights and making any adjustments.
- If you have a "Press Here" die cut or stamp, place this on the front of the card panel over the LED on/off button. If you don't have a stamp or die you can always doodle a circle and write "Press Here" in the right spot.
- Triple check that your lights come on when this spot is pressed!
- Glue in your "Love" sentiment stack.
- [Optional] If you want to provide access to the LED battery, cut a door in the front of your card base before attaching the card panel.
- Using adhesive foam strips, attach your awesome card panel to your card base,
- Turn it on and celebrate...then give it to someone you love!